"Finally, The Rock has come back to Fast and Furious." We can’t utter those immortal words just yet, though Fast and Furious 9 director Justin Lin has one eye on the Fast Saga’s two-part finale and is open to Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs making a return.
"To me, they’re still in this universe; they’re part of this family," Lin said when asked by Deadline on the chances of Hobbs & Shaw returning to the mainline franchise. "Whatever we do, whenever we’re talking about the next chapter, I never feel like I have any restrictions, so I’m excited for what we build, and as we’re coming to this kind of final chapter of this saga, I think I’m excited to revisit…Any character, in any situation, is up for discussion."
The Rock (and Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw) last appeared in the main Fast Saga in Fast and Furious 8 – and have not appeared in any promotional material for F9. They have since gone on, amid alleged tensions between The Rock and Vin Diesel, to appear in a 2019 spin-off, Hobbs & Shaw.
But the door is seemingly open for the pair to rock back up, pun absolutely intended. Vin Diesel has already teased the scope and scale of the final instalment of the Fast and Furious series – which is going to be split into two parts.
"As you know, we get to travel to all these wonderful places. And they're part of the reason why Fast 10 has to be broken into two different movies – it’s because there's so much ground to cover. And there's so many places in so many locations in the world that we have to visit," Vin Diesel teased.
Whether The Rock will need to pack his passport remains to be seen. But Justin Lin’s directive is clear: anything can (and probably will) happen before Fast and Furious drives off into the sunset.
Want to see what else is down the road in 2021? Here are the main movie release dates you should be looking forward to.
